Neubeginn oder Ende der Sozialdemokratie?

After the Social Democrats regained power in the majority of West European countries during the second half of the 1990s, the debate about the decline of Social Democracy, initiated only a few years earlier, increasingly seemed to be obsolete. However, the road to power by the Social Democrats was accompanied by a programmatic debate, which culminated in the “Third Way”. This article analyses the programmatic development in four West European countries and tries to empirically answer the question, whether we can characterize the recent development as a new beginning or the end for Social Democracy. Social and economic policies are at the centre of the analysis, since these policy areas have been at the core for the development of the “parties matter thesis” in the past. The analysis shows that the current or “new” Social Democracy clearly deviates from the “old” programmatically. However, this programmatic reorientation does not constitute a unique Social Democratic reform program, but moreover an acceptance of the central position of Christian Democracy. Therefore, the original “parties matter thesis” seems to lose some of its explanatory power.     

Book reviews

William H. Schauer, The Politics of Space: A Comparison of the Soviet and American Space Programs. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1976. vii+317 pp. $24.95.

Maureen Perrie, The Agrarian Policy of the Russian Socialist‐Revolutionary Party: From Its Origins Through the Revolution of 1905–1907. London: CUP, 1976. xii+216 pp. £6.75.

Peter Christian Ludz, Ideologiebegriff und marxistische Theorie: Ansätze zu einer immanenten Kritik. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1976. xviii+337 pp.

George R. Feiwel, Growth and Reforms in Centrally Planned Economies: The Lessons of the Bulgarian Experience. New York: Praeger, 1977. xxix+345 pp. £18.50.

Edy Kaufman, The Superpowers and Their Spheres of Influence: The United States and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and Latin America. London: Croom Helm, 1976. 208 pp. £7.95.

Jane Shapiro and Peter J. Potichnyj (eds.), Change and Adaptation in Soviet and East European Politics. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1976. 236 pp. $18.50. £12.05.

Jane P. Shapiro and Lenard J. Cohen (eds.), Communist Systems in Comparative Perspective. New York: Anchor Books, 1974. xv+530 pp. $4.95.

Alec Nove, The Soviet Economic System. London: Allen & Unwin, 1977. 399 pp. £10.50, or £4.95 (paperback).

Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia and the Slovaks. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1977. xiv+224 pp. $14.00 or $8.00 (paperback).

Yeshayahu Jelinek, The Parish Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party 1939–1945. East European Monographs No. XIV. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. viii+206 pp. $18.75.

William C. Wallace, Czechoslovakia. London: Ernest Benn, 1977. xiv+374 pp. £9.50.

Josef Korbel, Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia. New York: Columbia UP, 1977. xii+346 pp. $18.70.

Vinod Mehta, Soviet Economic Policy: Income Differentials in the USSR. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1977. viii+134 pp. Rs. 45.     

Schwimmende Politeia? Demokratische Mikroinseln im Südpazifik und in der Karibik

Microislands are not a hot spot of comparative government studies. Without good reasons. Surely, from a political perspective Microislands are not of great importance. But such an argument should not prevent researchers from taking a closer look at Microislands. Because they are perfectly designed to broaden our knowledge of the circumstances under which democracies occur and survive. In this paper three assumptions, taken from the rare literature on Microislands, are tested: territorial space, homogeneity and insularity. It can be shown that the geographical as well as the geopolitical position of Caribbean and south pacific microislands posses a high explanatory power for the question why those states are stable democracies.